Books You Don’t Remember the Name or Author of - Because if I can’t remember the name, it’ll drive me crazy

[A Grey Cat]

Literally all I can remember about this book I must have read as a real little kid was it had a watercolor illustration of a cat looking glum because it has to get a tomato juice bath from its owner, possibly because it got sprayed by a skunk. I think its name was George? The only line I remember is "George you smell worse than a skunk in a pig's throat. "


It's so odd, this could be a memory from I was so young that it may not even be real. Just a fragment my mind is making up because it's combing so far back into my memory that I may as well be trying to remember being an infant.

 

[Purple Pepsi]

I remember the cover was white with red lettering, and it was told in first person POV about a truck driver who murdered women along his route. It was nonfiction and an actual (auto)biography, but it had a ghostwriter instead of the actual guy in prison writing it.

 

[Clockwork]

I remember the cover was white with red lettering, and it was told in first person POV about a truck driver who murdered women along his route. It was nonfiction and an actual (auto)biography, but it had a ghostwriter instead of the actual guy in prison writing it.

This may be I: The Creation of a Serial Killer by Jack Olsen (2003). Partly written in the first person, it tells the story of Keith Hunter Jesperson (aka the "Happy Face Killer").

 

[You Bastard Guy]

Ok, I’m going to give this a try.

It was some random discarded book I picked up in a bus station in the mid 90s, of all times and places. It was a paperback, had a black cover, and the author was someone I didn’t recognize and can’t remember. It is a collection of short pitch-black gothic fantasy horror stories. The only story I read was about a couple of peasants who ran away to be together, and who ended up staying with a wizard. The woman gets pregnant, and the wizard slowly transforms her (or both of them) into a tree,

I read that, stashed it in my bag, and fell asleep. Then I changed buses a couple of times in quick succession. When I got on my next long bus, I reached for it and discovered to my horror that I had somehow lost it. Even now, it may be roaming bus station waiting areas or stuck between seats on a Greyhound, waiting to ensnare its next victim…

 

[Rezza]

This thread reminds me of a children's book I read back at middle school. It's translated to our language, so I can't really remember the title. The story is about a group of kids who due to something about career day in their school, hypnotized themselves and believed they're reincarnation of people in the past. I remember two of them believe they are reincarnation of Einstein and a race horse. It think it's an Australian novel, maybe? Can't really remember. The story and the ending was pretty weird. I want to know what else the authors made since it's quite trippy to read

 

[glass_houses]

This thread reminds me of a children's book I read back at middle school. It's translated to our language, so I can't really remember the title. The story is about a group of kids who due to something about career day in their school, hypnotized themselves and believed they're reincarnation of people in the past. I remember two of them believe they are reincarnation of Einstein and a race horse. It think it's an Australian novel, maybe? Can't really remember. The story and the ending was pretty weird. I want to know what else the authors made since it's quite trippy to read

Oooh! Oooh! Pick me! Pick me! I know this one!

It's an episode of a tv series and a book, both written by Morris Gleitzman, an Australian children's author.

Book here.

IMDB entry here.

And here's the tv episode in question.

 

[Rezza]

Oooh! Oooh! Pick me! Pick me! I know this one!

It's an episode of a tv series and a book, both written by Morris Gleitzman, an Australian children's author.

Book here.

IMDB entry here.

And here's the tv episode in question.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=2mTgOBJATeg

Ah, yes....this is the one. God...the book was quite decent until the ending. It was trippy to read it.
Turns out I only remember the subtitle the local publisher put for the translated edition

 

[Night Owl]

I had this book when I was a kid, but I can't find it. It was big and red, about the size of a small coffee table. There were dwarves or gnomes on the cover, riding some sort of flying machine. The book itself was about these dwarves/gnomes going on a journey in a airship and the only reason I remember that was because there was a full spread of the cutaway airship somewhere in the book and it detailed each compartment as to what it did to operate the ship. I think there was even a list of supplies they were going to take with them written right next to it. I don't remember much of the story apart from the fact they crash the airship at some point and have to build another. I think the second airship was the one on the cover.

I've had no luck googling it so far.

Never mind, I found it. My brother took it with him and I never asked because I thought it was destroyed years ago. I was wrong about the cover after all; it was a raft, not an airship.


It doesn't seem the book even has an English translation, so no wonder it was so difficult to find.

 

[Clockwork]

Never mind, I found it. My brother took it with him and I never asked because I thought it was destroyed years ago. I was wrong about the cover after all; it was a raft, not an airship.

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It doesn't seem the book even has an English translation, so no wonder it was so difficult to find.

Was this really a kids' book? What's with all the little nudists worshipping/sacrificing things to the giant spider!?

 

[Night Owl]

Was this really a kids' book? What's with all the little nudists worshipping/sacrificing things to the giant spider!?

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I think those were supposed to be Pygmies.

Also, European kid's books are pretty hardcore. I had the original Cinderella story with toe/heel cutting too growing up.

 

[Shig O'nella]

Ok, I’m going to give this a try.

It was some random discarded book I picked up in a bus station in the mid 90s, of all times and places. It was a paperback, had a black cover, and the author was someone I didn’t recognize and can’t remember. It is a collection of short pitch-black gothic fantasy horror stories. The only story I read was about a couple of peasants who ran away to be together, and who ended up staying with a wizard. The woman gets pregnant, and the wizard slowly transforms her (or both of them) into a tree,

I read that, stashed it in my bag, and fell asleep. Then I changed buses a couple of times in quick succession. When I got on my next long bus, I reached for it and discovered to my horror that I had somehow lost it. Even now, it may be roaming bus station waiting areas or stuck between seats on a Greyhound, waiting to ensnare its next victim…

Jane Yolen, Midnight Circus?

Sounds like her sort of tale.

 

[Slap47]

Long shot.

In elementary I had this large picture book that described many major wars from human history. Each war was given a full two page portrait explaining every little detail. Notes on uniforms, some historical context for the war, etc.

The portraits for the Russian Civil War and World War 1 were especially brutal.

 

[You Bastard Guy]

Jane Yolen, Midnight Circus?

Sounds like her sort of tale.

I looked at her website. Not the right book.

I'm pretty sure it was written by a R. R.-Martinesque fedora-wearer. Thinking back, I'm pretty sure the tree was on the cover.

 

[Pee Cola]

When I was little, I read a book about a kid who became a toothpaste entrepreneur after finding out what his mother paid for a tube of toothpaste from the store. He looked at the ingredients and found that baking soda was on the list and realised that a bag of baking soda was cheap, so he started making his own toothpaste using baking soda and charged a nickel a jar for it. He used empty baby food jars instead of tubes, as he had a baby brother or sister at the time.

IIRC it had a black kid on the cover and the book looked like it was published in the early-mid '70s.

It's an episode of a tv series and a book, both written by Morris Gleitzman, an Australian children's author.

Book here.

IMDB entry here.

And here's the tv episode in question.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=2mTgOBJATeg

I vaguely remember seeing this back in the day, probably at school. The only bits I remembered were the junkyard and the kid that thought he was Einstein because he saw a TV show about learning German, and the presenter was holding a beer stein and saying "ein stein".

 

[Clockwork]

When I was little, I read a book about a kid who became a toothpaste entrepreneur after finding out what his mother paid for a tube of toothpaste from the store. He looked at the ingredients and found that baking soda was on the list and realised that a bag of baking soda was cheap, so he started making his own toothpaste using baking soda and charged a nickel a jar for it. He used empty baby food jars instead of tubes, as he had a baby brother or sister at the time.

IIRC it had a black kid on the cover and the book looked like it was published in the early-mid '70s.

This one's easy - The Toothpaste Millionaire by Jean Merrill, first published in 1972. It's had a few covers over the years:

 

[Pee Cola]

This one's easy - The Toothpaste Millionaire by Jean Merrill, first published in 1972. It's had a few covers over the years:
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Yes! That's the one. I probably should've searched a bit harder.

 

[glass_houses]

I vaguely remember seeing this back in the day, probably at school. The only bits I remembered were the junkyard and the kid that thought he was Einstein because he saw a TV show about learning German, and the presenter was holding a beer stein and saying "ein stein".

I remembered the episode as someone believing they were the reincarnation of Henry Ford. I didn't link what I watched all those years ago with the description that was given, however; what gave it away was someone thinking they were the reincarnation of a racehorse. If it's an Australian book and someone thinks they're a racehorse, of course they think they're Phar Lap. So I just searched for Phar Lap + children's book + reincarnation and ended up with Morris Gleizman as the first search result.

 

[Rezza]

I suddenly remember this book I had when I was very young. It was a book about an aunt who decided to visit her sisters around the world using a hot-air balloon, along with her niece and nephew. Each sister is in a different country, and it serves as a plot hook to teach the readers about the country's culture and such. It also has a "where's waldo" type segment on each country/sister

 

[HunterHearstHelmsley]

It's an episode of a tv series and a book, both written by Morris Gleitzman, an Australian children's author.

Interesting, I didn’t know Morris Gleitzman had his work adapted to TV. My immediate thought was that it might be Paul Jennings.

Do you know the name of a Australian kids TV show which ran Friday nights on the the ABC in the early 2000s. It was episodical short horror(ish) stories. I remember particularly one where a boy crawled through a pillow fort into a WW1 trench.

 

[glass_houses]

Interesting, I didn’t know Morris Gleitzman had his work adapted to TV. My immediate thought was that it might be Paul Jennings.

Do you know the name of a Australian kids TV show which ran Friday nights on the the ABC in the early 2000s. It was episodical short horror(ish) stories. I remember particularly one where a boy crawled through a pillow fort into a WW1 trench.

A bit of searching leads me to a show called 'Freaky', released in 2003. I suspect the episode in question is episode 11, 'Fort, Photo and Pioneer'.